AUSTIN - Long before the Texas Longhorns kicked themselves for missing out on Johnny Football, they lucked into his kindred spirit.

Like Johnny Manziel, the Major Applewhite of 15 years ago was an undersized but cocksure high-school legend. Like Manziel, he wanted to play for the top Texas college program of the era. But just like things didn't work out for Manziel with UT, they fell apart for Applewhite with Texas A&M.

As it turned out, they both wound up in the right place. Both won over the skeptics, boosted a new coach and helped win a Heisman Trophy. Even more significantly, the emergence of each young quarterback marked a change in the state's balance of college football power.

And now, Johnny Football's red-haired forefather gets to find out if he still has what it takes to do it again.

It's fitting, given his history, that Applewhite received a promotion Wednesday because another guy left. When UT play-caller Bryan Harsin accepted a job as Arkansas State's head coach, Mack Brown turned to Applewhite the same way he did in 1998, when a forgotten quarterback named Richard Walton got hurt.

Brown, trying to keep things together, showed faith in Applewhite mainly because he had no better option.

Applewhite wasn't supposed to be at UT back then. With a 6-1, 190-pound frame almost identical to Manziel's at Kerrville Tivy, few major programs recruited him out of Baton Rouge Catholic High School. Then-A&M offensive coordinator Steve Ensminger was one of the only college coaches who showed faith in him, and Applewhite committed to the Aggies.

But when A&M fired Ensminger, Applewhite felt he no longer had a believer in College Station. So he became a Longhorn instead.

That's when the Manziel parallels continued. Boring John Mackovic was run out at UT the same way boring Mike Sherman was run out at A&M, and each left behind a passer almost no one expected would make a difference.

But when Brown turned to Applewhite, it was as if it had all been meant to be. The freshman quarterback dazzled, rallied his team to a stunning upset at Nebraska (compare that to Manziel at Alabama), and took his team to - wait for it - the Cotton Bowl.

As for the Heisman? Applewhite didn't have his name etched into the trophy, but Ricky Williams wouldn't have brought it to UT without him.

By the time that ceremony was over, the football hierarchy in the state had changed. A&M, having owned the landscape for years, was sinking into mediocrity, with an accomplished but aging coach fans were growing weary of. UT, with its energetic newcomer, quickly was becoming a cash-producing, recruiting behemoth.

Now, as Applewhite again takes control of the Longhorns' offense, the situation is essentially identical, only with the roles reversed. And on the same day Brown promoted him from running backs coach to offensive play-caller, there was another reminder of how UT was slipping.

For the fourth time this year, a recruit who'd committed to the Longhorns (this time a tight end from Belton) announced he'd changed his mind.

There's a perception that Harsin's departure and a lagging recruiting scene are more signs of the Longhorns' demise. And even though Applewhite has run offenses before, at Rice and at Alabama, there will be those who'll look at him and the situation and assume he's overmatched.

They'll doubt him, just like they once doubted Manziel. And just like they doubted the kid who surprised them long before Johnny Football.